I never know how to greet people on Good Friday, especially when I’m walking into a Good Friday church service.
“Happy Good Friday!”
That greeting doesn’t seem right. Good Friday is the day we remember Jesus’s death by crucifixion. The words “happy” and “good” when commemorating the darkest Friday in human history don’t seem appropriate.
“Blessed Good Friday.”
This is better, but “blessed” isn’t frequently used in English anymore. Besides, if you use blessed, you must decide whether to pronounce the word with one syllabus (blest) or two syllables (bless-ed). Both pronunciations are difficult before the words “Good Friday.”
I guess we could drop the word “Good” and go with:
“Blessed Friday.” Or “Blessed Friday to you.”
Or maybe:
“Sacred Friday to you.”
But these greetings make it sound like “Blessed Friday” or “Sacred Friday” are common titles for the day. And both sound overly sanctimonious to my casual Southern Californian ears.
Last year on Good Friday, a friend from church, Chris Hart, greeted me with:
“Happy Jesus-Died-for-Our-Sins Day”
I appreciated that greeting, and received it warmly, since it focused on the meaning of the day. And somber though the day may be, forgiveness of sins is indeed a happy result. But hyphenated adjectival constructions are somewhat difficult to say.
Since then, I’ve been thinking about other similar possibilities—some of them still leading with “happy” since that’s how we often greet people on holidays. Like:
“Happy- Heavy- and Hope-filled Friday to you”
It’s clunky, and still has the hyphenated adjective problem, but it does approximate the tone of the day, both in its heaviness and forward-looking hope.
Or perhaps:
“Happy It’s-Friday-but-Sunday’s-Coming”
The messaging mostly works, but you still end up with the hyphenated adjective problem and need to get the intonation exactly right for someone to understand what you’re saying. And, of course, “happy” is still somewhat unsettling for a Good Friday greeting.
So, I’m still unsure how to greet people on Good Friday.
Changing the focus, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a standard greeting to draw upon to greet other Christians on Good Friday the way we do on Resurrection Sunday like: “He is risen!” Response: “He is risen indeed!”
By analogy, what if for Good Friday we greeted each other with:
“Our sins are forgiven!” Response: “Forgiven indeed!”
I like that idea, but I doubt that anyone will know to respond with “Forgiven indeed” after I lead with “Our sins are forgiven!” And I don’t particularly want to teach others on the spot what to respond. Perhaps whole churches could learn how to respond this way, but it’s more difficult for an individual to implement. If I ever try it, though, maybe I’ll take responsibility for saying both parts:
“Our sins are forgiven. Forgiven indeed.”
Let’s hope, though, that I don’t make someone feel like there is a standard greeting they were supposed to say that they simply didn’t know about!
So I guess I’m still unsure what kind of greeting I’ll use this year on Good Friday.
But I do know that the Friday Jesus died was the most important Friday in all of history. It was sacred and blessed in a way no other Friday ever was. It was heavy and hope-filled, because although his disciples didn’t know it, Resurrection Sunday was just around the corner. Most importantly, because of what transpired on that Friday, we who believe in Jesus have received forgiveness of sins. The sacrificial substitution of Jesus Christ, who died in our place, made this salvation possible and effected eternal salvation for us. That is Good News indeed. Hallelujah!
“Our sins are forgiven!”
“Forgiven indeed!”
Kindle Afresh 